The Good: Decent casting, Great value as collectible, Cool accessories
The Bad: Exceptionally obscure, Inflexible, Light on coloring details.
The Basics: Generally a good sculpt, the very rare Pote Snitkin figure is a better investment than it is a toy for play.
One knows they have a perfect niche audience when there is a magazine for fans of a product designed to sell exclusive merchandise to that audience. In the case of Star Wars fans, the Star Wars Insider Magazine used to occasionally offer exclusive action figures and in 1998, they added to the Freeze Frame line-up of exclusive Star Wars figures with four highly sought-after toys. One of the four figures that could only be ordered through the magazine was Pote Snitkin.
Have you no memory of Pote Snitkin? I'm not surprised; for the Freeze Frame slide with the action figure, Snitkin is barely visible and reviewing Return Of The Jedi (my review is here!), he seems to be in very few frames. Snitkin is one of the mercenaries seen briefly on one of the skiffs that are carrying Luke Skywalker and his friends to their sentencing at the Sarlaac Pit on Tatooine. After Jabba declares they will all die, the heroes are taken across the desert to the Pit of Carkoon. Pote Snitkin is one of the alien guards at the back of a skiff before he is dispatched by Luke! And yet, his tenure on screen was enough to earn him a Kenner action figure!
The 4" Pote Snitkin figure is good, but ultimately average. Even so, this guard fleshes out the full Star Wars universe well and this is one of the few figures from the Power Of The Force line to never be recast!
Basics
The Pote Snitkin is a heavyset desert thug who works for Jabba The Hutt. The figure stands 3 3/4" tall to the top of its round, green head. Pote Snitkin is a robed creature with a burlap-type robe that covers his gross orange tunic. The guard is cool in that the baggy pants on the figure actually have some appearance of wear and the big reptilian hands have a scaled texture to them. The figure is made of hard plastic, save the robe, which is made of a softer plastic.
This toy is a decent sculpt, looking precisely like the alien Pote Snitkin is mediocre in its coloring detail, only because the head and hands have no shading or realistic color depth to them. Instead, the reptilian skin of the alien guard is monotonal. Still, the weathered appearance of the pants is good and the molded details like the belt on the robes and pouches hanging from the belt are very cool. The robe is made of a simple soft plastic and it may be removed to reveal a bright orange figure below.
Accessories
The Pote Snitkin, inadequate lackey for Jabba The Hutt, requires few accessories. In fact, all it comes with is a force pike and plaster pistol. In the movie, it was only seen on screen for a few frames, so the accuracy of its accessories is in question. Still, it looks menacing with the gear it comes with. The force pike is a bulky mace which may be held in either hand. This force pike is a two and a half inch long stick with a big head on one end and a handle at the other side. This looks like a traditional mace and has the appearance of weight and strength to it, bulking up the appearance of Pote Snitkin as an alien badass!
The blaster pistol is more like some lesser figures' blaster rifle, though it only has the one grip. Pote Snitkin's plaster pistol is unique to this figure and it is menacing in its appearance. Over two and a quarter inches long, the gun is molded with multiple sights and a thin handle that fits in either of the creature's hands. What makes this weapon wicked is the blade that descends below the barrel like a scimitar to allow Pote Snitkin to menace with its firearm in close quarters! Or at least, it could if only it were a more flexible toy!
As part of the Power Of The Force toy line, Pote Snitkin comes with a Freeze Frame slide as well. The Freeze Frame slide features an image with Pote Snitkin on it, but he is barely visible in the Tatooine action scene.
Playability
The four inch toy line was designed for play and Pote Snitkin is poor in that regard. The figure is poorly articulated and lacks significant articulation to make it interesting with its weapon. In addition to low articulation, Pote Snitkin has limited poseability. First, the robes inhibit movement of the arms more than about fifteen degrees. The figure tips if the feet are moved even slightly out of a flatfooted position. In a flatfooted position, Pote Snitkin is fairly stable, but even slightly out of it, it tips right over!
Pote Snitkin is also low on articulation. While the figure has six points of articulation - shoulders, groin socket, neck and waist, only the waist and legs have significant range of motion and these are the more pointless joints as the figure falls over or its big action pose is turned half around! Given the limited flexibility of the figure, one has to figure Pote Snitkin made a good snack for the Sarlaac!
Collectibility
Pote Snitkin is part of the Power Of The Force four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was incredibly common. While most figures were incredibly overproduced, Pote Snitkin was ridiculously limited as it was an exclusive figure from the Star Wars Insider Magazine. As well, Pote Snitkin has not been recast or re-released on any other cards, making it one of the few and its value has stayed constant at over twice its original issue price! This was a good investment figure back in the day and I suspect with the market leveling out, its peak price is being reached now.
Overview
The Pote Snitkin is not much of a figure, but it fleshes out the Star Wars universe well and its limited nature makes it sought after still. There is just enough to recommend here, even if one ends up having their Pote Snitkin simply being a wallflower in a display of Jabba's palace.
For other Return Of The Jedi figures from the Power Of The Force Collection, please check out my reviews of:
Imperial Speeder Bike
Nien Nunb
Darth Vader With Removable Helmet
Mail Away B'Omarr Monk
5.5/10
For other toy reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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